BDR carnage 7th anniv being observed

New Age Online

Families of slain army officers in 2009 Bangladesh Rifles mutiny pay tribute to their graves at Army graveyard in Banani on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of the mutiny on Thursday. — Ali Hossain Mintu

The nation mourns the victims of 2009 mutiny in the then Bangladesh Rifles on Thursday marking the seventh anniversary of the carnage.
Seventy four people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the mutiny in BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka in 2009.
Relatives of the victims, government high-ups and Border Guard Bangladesh and army officers paid tributes to the martyrs by placing wreaths at their graves at Banani Graveyard in the city.
A somber environment descended there as the family members burst into tears.
Former military officers now leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party also paid tribute to the victims at the graveyard.
BNP standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman, also a former chief of army staff, ASM Hannan Shah, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed were in the delegation. After placing wreaths, the iterated the demand of the families to initiate inquiry to identify and trace the plotters of heinous act.
To mark the day, special prayers are being offered in all mosques in all regions, sectors, institutions and units of the BGB and at its Pilkhana headquarters and BOPs, seeking divine blessings for the departed souls.
United News of Bangladesh adds: besides, a doa and milad mahfil will be held at Fazlur Rahman Khandaker Auditorium at Pilkhana BGB headquarters at 4:45 pm on Friday.
On February 25, 2009, hundreds of Bangladesh Rifles (now BGB) men rose up in armed revolt at Darbar Hall during the three-day ‘BDR Week’ inside the Pilkhana headquarters and killed 74 people, including 57 deputed army officers.
The mutiny finally ended the next day (Feb 26) with the surrender of the firearms and grenades through negotiation between the government and the BDR rebels.
After the mutiny, BDR was renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and 58 cases were filed — one for serious crimes, including murder and looting, and the rest for mutiny.
Some 152 people were sentenced to death and 423 others to different jail terms and 277 others acquitted in the country’s largest-ever killing case.
Among the convicts, 161 people, including late BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and local Awami League leader Torab Ali, were sentenced to life term imprisonment while 262 others to different jail terms starting from three months to 19 years.
On the other hand, a total of 5,926 BDR personnel were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from four months to seven years in the 57 mutiny cases.

Sanjay Dutt released from jail

BBC / New Age Online Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt has been released from a prison in the western Indian city of Pune.
Dutt, 56, was sentenced for firearms offences linked to the 1993 Mumbai blasts which killed 257 people and injured 713.

Sanjay Dutt. — AFP photo

He was convicted of buying firearms from the bombers but said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting.
The actor was moved to the Pune jail in 2013 to finish his five-year jail term.
But he was recently granted a remission of 144 days on the basis of good behaviour and activities like running a radio programme.
‘His remission was worked out in compliance with jail rules and he was treated like any other convict,’ the chief of Pune Yerwada Jail superintendent UT Pawar told the Press Trust of India news agency.
One of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, Dutt is hugely popular for his role as a lovable gangster in the Munnabhai movies. He has also dabbled in politics.
The son of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Dutt said he had bought the firearms to protect his family during the 1993 Mumbai Hindu-Muslim riots, which followed the destruction of the Babri mosque by Hindu zealots in the northern town of Ayodhya.
In 2006, a special anti-terror court convicted 100 people for the blasts. Twelve were given the death penalty and 20 others sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dutt, the most high-profile among the convicts, was originally charged with five offences, including criminal conspiracy and possession of illegal weapons.
In March 2013, India’s Supreme Court upheld his conviction, but reduced his sentence from the earlier six years to five.

Afghan boy bags real Messi shirt

BBC / New Age Online

Unief

The Afghan boy who became an online hit after wearing a homemade shirt bearing Lionel Messi’s famous number 10 has finally received the real thing – from the Argentine footballer himself.
BBC Trending helped to locate the child known as ‘Messi’s biggest fan’, five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi, who comes from the Jaghori District, in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
Messi’s management team confirmed on Thursday that Murtaza was sent a signed Argentina shirt and football from the Barcelona forward, who has been crowned the world’s best player five times.
‘I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me,’ Murtaza said – already perfecting his own goal celebration.
The online search for the boy was sparked by a single photo that went viral, showing him wearing the homemade shirt made from a striped blue plastic bag, imitating the famous Argentina strip.
Claims initially followed that the boy was an Iraqi Kurd and that the Barcelona star wanted to find the young fan to give him a proper shirt.
But the source of the online rumours claiming that the picture was taken in Dohuk, Iraq, later admitted making it up.
Murtaza was finally identified as the boy in the picture after his uncle, Azim Ahmadi, an Afghan living in Australia, put BBC Trending in touch with his brother, Arif – the young devoted Messi fan’s father
The Ghazni farmer confirmed his son was the boy who captured people’s imaginations worldwide and added that Murtaza was ‘extremely happy’.
Messi is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund and the agency helped to get the shirt to the boy, posting the picture of Murtaza on its Facebook page.
Messi also sent some extra shirts, which may now be snapped up by Murtaza’s family, including his oldest brother Hamayon, who published the original pictures on Facebook, which then went viral.
It’s not clear what’s happened to the plastic bag, which may now have been retired